QPR 1 Everton 1: MARK HUGHES insisted that it remains only a matter of time before QPR begin to pull away from the foot of the Premier League table, but the pressure on the Rangers manager shows no sign of abating. Rangers remain anchored to the bottom after Everton extended the west Londoners' winless start to the season to eight games. A Julio Cesar own goal cancelled out Junior Hoilett's early strike and, although the visitors were reduced to 10 men for the final half-hour – second yellow card for Steven Pienaar – the home side could not find a winner.
For Hughes’s side this was only a third point of the season but, with almost a quarter of the campaign gone he remains convinced it is just a blip. “We know we compete in this league and we’ve shown it against the top sides,” he said. “We’re having a frustrating period but every club has one. We’re having ours now and once we’re through it that’ll be the end of it.”
His opposite number concurred that time would prove a healer. “They’ve got good players,” said the Everton manager, David Moyes. “After staying up they’ve brought in a lot of new players and they needed the turnaround to make sure they were alright.”
Nevertheless, the afternoon could hardly have got off to a better start for Hughes and his team. Little over a minute was on the clock when Jose Bosingwa hooked a Leighton Baines corner narrowly wide of his own goal. From the resultant set-piece, Cesar punched clear and Hoilett outmuscled Phil Neville to win the loose ball inside his own half. From there he raced forward with defenders backpedalling and, having seemingly held on to the ball for a second too long, watched as his shot clipped the heels of Baines and flew past the stranded Tim Howard. Only 118 seconds had elapsed.
The QPR keeper could do little about Everton’s equaliser even if he will be credited with it. Pienaar’s free-kick was headed thunderously against the inside of the post by Sylvain Distin and the ball bobbled back over the line courtesy of a rebound off the Brazilian’s back.
